View source for Matsuo Bashō

===Early life===
[[Image:MatsuoBasyoSeika.jpg|thumb|right|Bashō's supposed birthplace in [[Iga Province]]]]
Matsuo Bashō was born in 1644, near [[Ueno, Mie|Ueno]], in [[Iga Province]] (modern western Mie prefecture).{{sfn|Carter|1997|p=62}}{{sfn|Kokusai|1948|p=246}} The Matsuo family was of [[samurai]] descent, and his father was probably a {{Nihongo|''musokunin''|無足人}}, a class of landowning peasants granted certain privileges of samurai.{{sfn|Ueda|1992|p=17}}{{sfn|Carter|1997|p=62}}

Little is known of his childhood. The Matsuo were a major [[ninja]] family, and Bashō was trained in ninjutsu.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stevens |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zt9iEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA246 |title=The Art of Budo: The Calligraphy and Paintings of the Martial Arts Masters |date=2022-12-06 |publisher=Shambhala Publications |isbn=978-1-64547-054-0 |location=[[Boulder, Colorado]] |pages=246 |language=en}}</ref> In his late teens, Bashō became a servant to {{nihongo|Tōdō Yoshitada|[[:ja:藤堂 良忠|藤堂 良忠]]}} most likely in some humble capacity,{{sfn|Carter|1997|p=62}}{{sfn|Ueda|1982|pp=17–20}} and probably not promoted to full samurai class.{{sfn|Nihon Jinmei Daijiten Plus|2015}} It is claimed he served as cook or a kitchen worker in some near-contemporaneous accounts,{{Refn|group=Notes |[[Ichikawa Danjūrō II]]'s diary ''Oi no tanoshimi'' says "cook"; {{nihongo|Endō Atsujin|遠藤曰人}}'s biography ''Bashō-ō keifu'' "kitchen-worker".{{sfn|Kon|1994|p=12}}}}<!--at the kitchen of Yoshitada's father Yoshikiyo (藤堂 良精),--> but there is no conclusive proof.{{sfn|Carter|1997|p=62}} A later hypothesis is that he was chosen to serve as [[Page (servant)|page]] ({{interlanguage link|koshō{{!}}''koshō''|ja|小姓}}) to Yoshitada<!--pen name Sengin-->, with alternative documentary evidence suggesting he started serving at a younger age.{{sfn|Hibino|1978|p=28}}

He shared Yoshitada's love for ''[[Renku|haikai no renga]]'', a form of collaborative poetry composition.{{sfn|Ueda|1982|p=20}} A sequence was opened with a verse in 5-7-5 [[mora (linguistics)|mora]] format; this verse was named a ''[[hokku]]'', and would centuries later be renamed ''[[haiku]]'' when presented as a stand-alone work. The ''hokku'' would be followed by a related 7-7 mora verse by another poet. Both Bashō and Yoshitada gave themselves {{Nihongo|''haigō''|俳号|}}, or ''[[haikai]]'' [[pen name]]s; Bashō's was {{nihongo|'''Sōbō'''|宗房}}, which was simply the ''[[on'yomi]]'' (Sino-Japanese reading) of his adult name, "{{nihongo|Munefusa|宗房}}." In 1662, the first extant poem by Bashō was published. In 1726, two of Bashō's hokku were printed in a compilation.{{clarify|date=February 2018}}

In 1665, Bashō and Yoshitada together with some acquaintances composed a hyakuin, or one-hundred-verse ''[[renku]]''. In 1666, Yoshitada's sudden death brought Bashō's peaceful life as a servant to an end. No records of this time remain, but it is believed that Bashō gave up any possibility of samurai status and left home.{{sfn|Ueda|1982|p=21}} Biographers have proposed various reasons and destinations, including the possibility of an affair between Bashō and a Shinto ''[[miko]]'' named {{Nihongo|Jutei|寿貞|}}, which is unlikely to be true.{{sfn|Okamura|1956}}{{page needed|date=November 2020}} Bashō's own references to this time are vague; he recalled that "at one time I coveted an official post with a tenure of land", and that "there was a time when I was fascinated with the ways of homosexual love": there is no indication whether he was referring to real obsessions or fictional ones.{{sfn|Ueda|1982|p=22}} (Biographers of the author, however, note that Bashō was involved in homosexual affairs throughout all his life<ref>{{cite book |title=Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600–1950 |author=Gregory M. Pflugfelder |year=1999|page=39 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0520251656}}</ref> and that among his lovers were several of his disciples;{{sfn|Leupp|1997|p=137}} in Professor Gary Leupp's view, Bashō's homoerotic compositions were clearly based on his personal experiences{{sfn|Leupp|1997|p=83}}). He was uncertain whether to become a full-time poet; by his own account, "the alternatives battled in my mind and made my life restless".{{sfn|Ueda|1982|p=23}} His indecision may have been influenced by the then still relatively low status of ''renga'' and ''haikai no renga'' as more social activities than serious artistic endeavors.{{sfn|Ueda|1982|p=9}} In any case, his poems continued to be published in anthologies in 1667, 1669, and 1671, and he published a compilation of work by himself and other authors of the [[Teitoku]] school, {{nihongo|''[[The Seashell Game]]''|貝おほひ|Kai Ōi}}, in 1672.{{sfn|Kokusai|1948|p=246}} In about the spring of that year he moved to [[Edo (Tokyo)|Edo]], to further his study of poetry.{{sfn|Ueda|1992|p=29}}